A/N: Ready for a bit of drama? I wanted to make you guys wait a bit longer than that but I changed my mind.

Booth was pacing back and forth in the kitchen when he heard the car door slam shut outside. He knew that Temperance had arrived. Turning to his kids, he quickly ushered them out of the kitchen.

"Go play outside. We'll call you when dinner is ready."

Lukas, sensing something was not right, quickly grabbed his little sister by the hand. He had known, from the moment his dad had picked him up after school without his mother, that something was wrong. He knew that they were going to fight and he knew how much Riley despised their arguments. He grabbed his shoes and his sister's sandals before stepping out onto the deck and leading his sister as far away from the house as possible. The windows were open, they would hear them argue.

Booth stood at the sink, staring at his kids from the window above it. He knew that Lukas had sensed that something had been wrong with him and that he was doing his best to keep his sister occupied. Watching his son, he wondered where he had learned to be so intuitive. Temperance thought it came from him but he already doubted it. He had his mother's intelligence, there was no doubt about it. If Lukas had gotten something from him, it was his strength. Emotionnally, Lukas was the strongest child he had ever met. Unlike Riley who was more fragile. While Lukas simply locked himself in his room or in the basement when arguments between him and his wife occured, Riley threw fits. Their arguments had often been stopped by Riley's tears, in fact.

Booth was happy that his daughter was playing outside, away from their house. Their arguments weren't usually so bad but tonight, things were different. Tonight, Booth had a feeling it was going to be explosive.

The front door opened and Temperance stepped inside. Announcing her presence, she was surprised to have no response. Normally, a little brown head and another blonde one would have come running from some place in the house and jumping into their mother's arms but not tonight. Temperance wondered why as she walked in the kitchen, puzzled.

"Where are the kids?" she asked, cheerfully.

"Outside."

His ton had been cold and Temperance picked it up immediately.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, accusingly as she grabbed a glass in the cupboard.

She didn't know why but she was really thirsty. Opening the fridge door, she grabbed orange juice and poured some in her glass before putting back in the fridge. She walked to the patio door and spotted her children outside in the yard. She looked at the time. Shouldn't they have been at the table eating dinner right now? It was past six.

"Who drove you home? You had no car." Booth asked, ignoring her previous question.

"Ryan did."

And it was the least he could do after kissing me. She added in her mind.

"Of course. Ryan."

She looked suspiciously at her husband.

"What's gotten into you?"

Booth ignored her question once again.

"Is he a good kisser?" he asked.

Temperance, who had turned her gaze back to her children after asking her question, turned her attention to her husband, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. Had she heard right? Was she only being paranoid because she was wrecked by guilt over what had happened in her office? But she had no reason to feel guilty. She hadn't initiated the kiss, Ryan had, and she had pushed him away the second her brain had started functionning again, whick had taken about ten seconds.

"What did you say?"

She knew fully well what he had said but she was stalling for time. She had tried to keep her voice stable but it had quivered. She cursed herself for being so weak.

"I asked you if he was a good kisser." Booth replied, in a tone that meant "you know perfectly what I had asked you".

Temperance gulped but said nothing.

Booth sighed and turned to face her. His eyes showed deep hurt as they burned into her soul and Temperance was unable to look in them. She avoided his eyes. He had seen them. But when? She hadn't seen him. Was it possible that he had left before she had pushed Ryan away? If so, he must have been thinking that her and Ryan had a make-out session. She began to feel even more guilty. This has to be straightened out immediately.

She had been about to reply when Booth cut her off. His tone was cold and sent shivers down her spine. He was more hurt than she had thought.

"You know Bones, if you wanted a divorce, you should have just mentionned it. You didn't have to run off kissing other guys."

Temperance was shocked. Divorce?

"Booth, I..."

"Especially Ryan." Booth added, ignoring her. "Any other guy wouldn't have bothered me that much but Ryan? The guy's a jerk."

Temperance felt anger boil in her blood.

"He's not a jerk, Booth." She replied, disapprovingly.

She wasn't quite sure why she had felt the need to defend him. He didn't really deserve it.

"Of course you're going to defend him." Booth spat. "He's your lover."

She couldn't believe Booth was saying stuff like that.

"He is not my lover! You are!"

He laughed sarcastically.

"Yeah right."

Temperance rolled her eyes.

"You know what? You need help!"

Booth's face turned red.

"I need help! Seriously. You think I need help? You're the one who's the workaholic in this family, not me.You're the one who started all of this."

"I started all of this?"

She was now fuming. How dare he accuse her?

"Yes! You started all of this. You're the one who started spending more time with your partner than with your own family!"

"You just said it yourself. Ryan is my partner! We work on cases together. Of course I'm going to spend time with him!"

She couldn't believe they were having this conversation again. It had been a while since they had and she had actually thought that Booth had worked out this issue on his own and that he would leave her relationship with Ryan alone. She knew today that she had foolish to think so.

"We used to be partners and we never spent that much time together!"

It was Temperance's turn to laugh sarcastically.

"Is your memory failing you, Seeley? I remember spending much more time than that with you. I even remember you bringing chinese food at my place at 1:00 am in the morning. You've never seen Ryan do that!"

"It's always about Ryan, isn't it? Is there even a sentence that doesn't contain his name?"

"Booth, you're being completely ridiculous."

"Shouldn't have kissed him then."

This time she had had enough. Slamming her hands on the counter, she looked up at her husband straight in the eyes. He didn't blink and neither did she.

"That's ENOUGH! Do you want to know what I did after Ryan kissed me? I pushed him away and I kicked him out of my office! That's what I did! If you wouldn't have left and actually given me the time to react, you would have seen that! But no! You went all nuts like you do and you just left! Next time, Booth, before you throw a jealousy fit, double-check your information!"

For a second or two, Booth looked stunned and Temperance felt victorious. He only stared, not quite knowing what to say or what to believe. Sure, it would be easy for her to say that she had pushed Ryan away since he hadn't stayed long enough to see if she had actually did. Then again, maybe it had in fact happened. Not quite knowing what to say, he rubbed the back of his neck. This was too screwed up.

He snapped back to reality to find Temperance pacing back and forth in front of him. He had never seen her so angry.

"I'm just so sick and tired of the jealousy, Booth." She went on, her voice cold like his had been previously. "Every time there's a new man in my life, you get jealous and immediately start assuming the worst. The only partner that you liked was Elena and that was because she was a woman. You're jealous of Ryan just like you were jealous of David, of Micheal and other men that have been around me shortly after we got married. Booth, you were even jealous of Russ and he is my brother. You actually thought that I spent too much time with him and that it was distracting me from my work."

Booth looked uncomfortable.

"Well... it did."

"Don't say anything!" Temperance immediately cut him off. "You have to stop talking and just listen once in a while. Booth, this jealousy thing, it's really turning into a real problem. You need help."

"Here we go again with the help thing." Booth said, rolling his eyes, but with less conviction than before. "You know what? I don't need help. If you could just stop flirting with every single guy you met, maybe I wouldn't be so jealous."

"See? You turn this around to me again! It's never about you, Booth! It's always about me! I was the one who tricked you into sleeping with me the first time! It was the one who made sure I forgot to tell you that I hadn't taken all of my pills that month! It was my fault that I got pregnant! And now it's my fault because I 'flirt' with other guys. I just can't believe you!"

"So you're saying that all of that was my fault? I don't recall ever forgetting to take my birth control pills!"

"Will you just let it go? It happened like six years ago." Temperance sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I did let it go, Bones. You're the one who brought it up."

Temperance raised a hand to her forehead. All of this was giving her a headache.

"I can't take this anymore."

"What?"

Booth watched as her eyes and her entire expression turned serious.

"First thing tomorrow morning, we're calling a divorce lawyer."

The words hit Booth in the chest like a plunging knife. He tried his best not to retort that it was a good idea. The situation was bad enough already, he didn't need to make it worst. Grabbing his keys from the counter, he quickly walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway. He fetched his running shoes from the closet before roughly opening the door and shutting it violently behind him.

In the kitchen, Temperance closed her eyes as she felt the whole house tremble from the slamming of the door. Tears were threatning to fall but she forced them in when she heard the patio door to the kitchen open.

"Mommy, I'm hungry." Riley whined, peeking her head through the door.

Temperance gathered herself up and smiled weakly at her daughter.

"Mommy is going to make soup and sandwiches. We'll eat in about fifteen minutes."

"YAY!" Riley cried out, running back to her brother, oblivious to the scene that had taken place in her very own kitchen.

Booth parked the SUV in front of Ryan's apartment building. Temperance wanted to divorce and it was because of the man who lived on the third floor of this particular building. He was the reason. If he hadn't waltzed in Temperance's life like he had, they wouldn't have been in this mess. His wife would have still been loving, she would have never kissed another man and they wouldn't have been on the verge of divorcing. A small voice in his head added that it was partially his fault, that he probably helped pushing her to making a rash decision. Booth told it to shut up.

He climbed the stairs to the third floor, walked down the corridor and knocked at his colleague's door.

He heard the footsteps coming from inside the apartment. He wasn't quite sure anymore what he was doing there but the louder the footsteps became, the more he believed what he was about to do was the right thing. This man needed to be straightened out.

Ryan opened the door to a very angry-looking Booth.

"Agent Booth? What-"

But Ryan never got to finish his sentence before being shoved by Booth further into his apartment.

"You think you can just go off kissing another man's wife?"

His tone was sharp and harsh. Ryan was speechless.

"Booth, what are you...?"

Booth pushed him once again, making Ryan collide with the back of his couch.

"Temperance is my wife. She loves me, not you! Now just leave her the fuck alone!"

"I'm sorry I kissed her, Booth." Ryan said, bringing up his hands in a protective manner. "If it helps, she pushed me away and asked me never to do that again."

"Yeah." Booth said, nodding sharply. "And you better listen to her."

"Or else what?" Ryan asked, sarcastically.

Booth's eyes turned darker in anger as he grabbed Ryan by the collar and pressed him against the wall. Ryan gulped. He had never seen him like that. In his eyes flowed madness and an irrational sparkle illuminated them. He had never thought Booth to be so crazy.

"If you don't, I will personally make sure that you don't see the following day. Do I make myself clear?"

Ryan forced himself to stay calm, to remind himself that Booth had the right to be pissed at him, but he couldn't help the beads of sweat falling from his forehead. This man was definetely crazy.

"Is that a threat?" Ryan asked, trying hard to keep his voice steady.

"You better believe it is." Booth said through clenched teeth just before releasing Ryan's collar from his grip.

Booth turned around and was about to walk out the door when he stopped. He looked once more at Ryan, who was still standing against the wall, dumbfounded.

"Don't forget." Booth said, pointing a finger at him. "One more move on her and you'll regret the day you were born."

On that, he left the apartment. And as he drove around Washington trying to call himself down, Booth came to terms that maybe, he did in fact need help.

Temperance had just finished tucking in Lukas and assuring him that his father would came back home later that night when she heard her cellphone ringing in the kitchen. Jogging downstairs and into the kitchen, she immediately grabbed it and checked out her caller ID. Private number.

Her heart raced in her chest as she flipped her phone open and slowly put it to her ear.

"Booth." She stated, a twinge of hurt pricking at her heart at the thought that this might have been the last time she would ever call herself that.

Her thoughts were immediately thrown back to reality when the voice reached her ears.

"Please..." The voice pleaded. "Please, help me."

Temperance took a few seconds before answering.

"Melina?"

She heard a click that told her the caller had hung up.

The sound of the door startled her and she turned around quickly. She recognized the silhouette of her husband. She hadn't expected him to come back so early. At the moment, though, she couldn't have cared less.

Booth walked in the kitchen, oblivious to the look on his wife's face.

"I'll consider therapy." He simply said.

But noticing now the weird expression on her face, he added:

"Are you okay?"

Temperance nodded, numbly.

"Melina just called."

A/N: Wow! That HAD to be the most dramatic chapter I have ever written in my entire life. And again, don't hate me just yet!